Jake, Paige and bagels in the library

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Angelo was in the medlab. Jake already knew that and didn't waste time going down to check. If the boy was awake and ready for visitors, someone was bound to mention it. No, Jake was looking for Paige. She wasn't in the library, that he knew for sure, having spent most of the day there, and now he was checking the jungle/classroom, before heading up to Paige's room. If none of that worked, he'd collar a student and make the student search instead.

Luckily for Jake, Paige was taking a walk out from the ballroom to go get some more spackle for the numerous bullet holes. That and some towels as the munchkins thought it would be ridiculously funny to have a little spackle fight to cheer up the older students. They understood that there was something terribly wrong but they also knew that they were not in danger at the moment, so being sad was not really worth it. Why be sad when you have the day off from classes and get to play in the ballroom? Paige had already picked up some towels, they were slung over her shoulder, as well as some cleaner which was in a bucket, and was now heading out to grab another pail of spackle from the garage that didn't hold cars.

Jake turned a corner and spotted Paige wandering around with towels. He shook his head a little in confusion, then shrugged and went to grab her before she disappeared. "Hey, Guthrie! ...Paige!"

Paige looked over her shoulder, vaguely amused. No one had called her Guthrie in a while. "Yes, Counselor Gavin? How may I help you?"

"Wait up." Jake jogged down the hallway to her. "Are you doing anything important right now? Of course, you aren't. Come." He grabbed her arm lightly. "Let's do lunch."

"Actually," Paige said lightly, continuing to walk. "I am. But I'm fairly sure if you let me drop off these things to the spackle room they'll let me take a little break. And look! You get to carry cleaning supplies. How domestic of you." At that, Paige looped the bucket with bottles of something like Pine-Sol onto his arm.

Jake blinked down at his arm, and kept walking. "You know what I think? I think you people are taking advantage of me."

"Of course we are. It's certainly not that we're asking you to do your job, no," Paige replied, turning down to where Marko had instructed her to find more spackle. "Of course not."

"I have read the Counselor guidelines many times. I _know_ it doesn't say anything about carrying..." He glanced down at the bucket. "...Things." He followed Paige curiously. "Ah. Now I see. You're one of Marko's slaves."

Paige opened a door, and stepped in. When she returned she was carrying a bucket of spackle in two hands. "Watch your mouth, sir or face my angsty wrath. I have one you know. It's one of those freaky teenager things."

"If I am to shut up, will you do lunch then?" And there was a brief glimpse of something that could be interpreted as vulnerability in Jake's face, before the usual slight smile of amusement was back.

"Well..." Paige drawled out, thinking to herself. "I guess. Sure, why not? You're just going to have to defend me against Angie when she figures out I'm leaving her mostly alone with the squirts for a while."

"Absolutely. I'll buy her creme brulee or something." Jake suggested, walking back with Paige, still carrying the bucket. At least he wasn't wearing a suit today. Because then he'd look ridiculous.

Paige laughed as she pushed open the door to the ballroom with her hip, met with cheers at more spackle and more importantly, more towels. She returned fairly quickly, ducking away from a thrown towel and closed the door behind her. "They'll survive. They're just so upset I'm taking my wonderful singing voice with me," was all she said.

Jake arched an eyebrow, but didn't comment. He started walking. "To the library where the books and the bagels live."

"A man after my own heart. Well, a man who happens to look like a woman after my own heart," Paige teased, rubbing some of the plaster from her hands.

Jake shrugged. "Food good, books good. Unbeatable combination. Besides, there's hardly noone in the library."

Paige poked him in the shoulder. "That was a joke, sir. You're supposed to laugh. You know, boost my lack of self esteem."

"Well, it wasn't funny," Jake deadpanned, then grinned. "And I'm hungry." They walked a little more, and then entered the library, which looked like it had had a visit from a butler or waitress with food and drinks placed elegantly on one of the back tables. Jake had problems with the term "casual" when it wasn't applied to take out.

"Watch it, sir. I'm all fragile or something useless like that," Paige returned in an equally flat tone before breaking into her own grins. Paige sat herself down, barely resisting turning the chair around and settled for tipping it back just a bit instead.

"You're going to fall down, you know," Jake pointed out, apparently serious as he sat down and picked up a bagel.

"Only if you push me, sir," Paige chirped in reply, sipping from her water.

"I might do." Jake grinned. He took a bite of his bagel. "Last couple of days have been... interesting, huh?"

Paige didn't comment for a moment, choosing to find a bagel and chew on that instead. When she swallowed all she really had to say was, "Yes. Interesting."

"You okay?" Jake frowned at her.

"I'm better than I was yesterday," replied honestly. "There are good people here."

"There are," Jake said, non-commitingly. He hesitated. "Do you know how... Angelo is doing?"

Paige's hold on her plastic cup tightened, causing it to crackle under her grip. She put it down and shrugged. "Not other than he's not dead yet."

Jake nodded. "Yeah. That's." He sighed, put his bagel down and rubbed his forehead for a moment. He said quietly, "What do you do when someone you like gets hurt?"

"Are you asking me for assistance or getting into my head, Jake?" she asked, tearing her bagel into pieces.

"...A little bit of both, maybe," Jake admitted, glancing down at his bagel. "I'm not." He frowned. "I'm not used to caring. When people get hurt. I don't like it," he finished, sulking.

Paige nodded, coming forward in her chair with a solid bang. She stretched across the table to rest her hand on his with a little smile. "I know. I'm just try to keep myself busy, really. But I wouldn't be asking me about how to deal with this sort of thing."

He let his thumb caress her hand absently. "Yeah, well. It's not like I'm going to ask Pete, now is it?" he said wryly. "And I thought maybe you'd. Well, you're normal, right?"

"As normal as they get around here. Haven't had my family brutally murdered, my best friends try to kill me, a hole blown in my chest, the entire nation turn on me, or even a scary group of mutant haters kidnap me while I'm out with some of the the most superhero type on the planet. The only even slightly angst worthy occurrence in my life is a father who died when I was little and heck. That happens to normal kids all the time." Paige smiled a bit. "So maybe I'm the worst one to ask. I don't really know /how/ to handle this. I just keep plowing along like nothing is out of place and we always skip class at the end of January to fix up some bullet holes and rebuild entire hallways."

Jake laughed, then shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe that's the only way. I'm going to see if I can drag Warren with me to town later tonight, maybe that'll help." He paused and went through her speech in his head. "You're telling me the kids here has had those things happen to them?"

"I think you should. I haven't seen Warren around in a while and it worries me. Stupid kid, has the attention span of a flea. Just don't get him too drunk. I wouldn't want him competing with Doug for best hallway show," Paige chuckled, obviously not meaning much of it word for word. She took a sip of her water, moving onto the topic change. "Yes, yes they have. I'm not the sort to make things up, chickpea."

"I said I was buying, so I'm just glad he's a lightweight," Jake grinned. He got a mischevious expression on his face. "You know, I've never seen an angel strip before..."

Paige made a face. "Consider yourself lucky."

"Really? Do _share_.""

"Repressed memory," Paige said before tsking. "You should know better than to try and bring those up, Counselor Gavin."

"But imagine how he'll _blush_. He's the only the Third I know who blushes."

Paige giggled, just a bit, covering it with her hand. "Then you don't want to harden his poor, gentle soul."

Jake considered it. "You mean I should spread the blushing out a little over time?"

"Something like that." She popped a piece of her bagel into her mouth thoughtfully.

"You might have a point." Jake nodded. Then: "What?"

Paige made a grand show of checking her watch and gasping. "Would you look at the time! I really should be getting back."

"What?" Jake demanded, grabbing her wrist.

"I am not going to help you know how to get Warren to strip for you, Jake. Just make sure it never, ever happens again. Think of the children!" Paige looked at her wrist where Jake had a hold of it.

"Who's talking about children? Just having him strip for me would be enough for --" He trailled off as Paige started laughing.

"You jerk!" Paige explained, still giggling and trying to shake his hand loose. "Now let me go or I'll tell Marko that you don't have anything to do. Unless we're still counselling and I missed it?"

Jake let her go immidiately, eyes comically wide. "You wouldn't do that, would you?"

"I learned from the best, darling," Paige said sweetly. "You might know her as Alison Blaire?"

"The Devil woman!" Jake exclaimed, leaning back in his chair, eyes going light brown for a moment. "You are a spawn of the devil. ...This explains so much."

Paige grinned widely and just barely resisted a little Shinobi eyebrow waggle. "Does it now?"

"It does." Jake nodded solemnly. "The hair, the eyes, the tendency to go shiny... And did I mention, evil?"

"Aww..." Paige purred, tilting her head in a blushing way. "You're so sweet."

"Nah, I just know how to talk to lady," Jake grinned. "Speaking of ladies, could you get the word out that nicking leaves off of Daphne while they're talking to me is just not on?"

Paige's eyes went stormy very fast. "Someone's been picking at Daphne?"

"Yes. I find the leaves lying on the floor once they're gone. That one side of her is nearly bare," Jake exaggerated, nodding seriously.

"Ooh... someone's going to be hurting in the morning," Paige said lowly.

"I'm not sure who it was though, but it was definitely one of those I've been putting together shedules for."

She gave him a truly wicked grin. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

Jake beamed back. "I knew I could count on you."

"Yes," Paige said in a slightly odd tone. "I'm good like that."

Jake eyed her for a moment, but didn't say anything. "Weren't you going back to sparkle things with the tiny ones?"

"Spackle," she corrected automatically. "And yes, but I was waiting for a dismissal since last time I tried to leave you got all grabby."

"I did not get all grabby," Jake denied. "...Much." He grinned. "You are dismissed, Guthrie. Don't let me catch you doing anything like that again." He shrugged at Paige's arched eyebrow. "What? Isn't that what they say?"

Paige smirked and shook her head. "Probably, but think of who you're talking to. If this were a normal school all the popular kids would be tripping me in the halls."

"...Showering you with valentines, more like," Jake said absently.

"Don't you start too!" Paige said with a mock moan, but there was something behind her eyes as she turned away.

Jake watched her walk away, ripping his bagel apart. What am I doing? he thought. What am I doing here? This is not where I belong.